RECIPE: An absolutely belting Beetroot and Cherry salad
When it's too hot for leaves and soft stuff
I promised you a bonus recipe this week and I had many to choose from, as I’m head chef on this family holiday ;) and have been cooking lots, but it’s always the fridge raid that ends up stealing the show isn’t it?
I might bore you another time with my new interest in low histamine foods, (the common link here), but the beetroot, cherries and red onions were sitting in our fridge and so that’s how they ended up on the plate. Just thought I would mention it because it’s not a combo I’ve come across before and although the colours are seriously sexy together, and they taste SO good, it wasn’t premeditated.
You might have seen on instagram stories, I made paella last night over wood fire. I find it hard to leave the embers jobless once the meal is served. My go to are bananas, split, filled with brown sugar and a splash of dark rum. Anyone else do that? Mum used to do those minus the rum when we were kids. I did those on our first night. Then another time we had a veggie grill and I just left some little potatoes to slowly wrinkle away.
But I also adore beetroot (wrapped in foil) and buried in the coals slowly cooking in that residual heat. Admittedly not so appealing for dessert, but the beetroot/beets are so good the next day. I also just halved a red onion and sat that on the grill to char and then chucked them skin side down straight into the coals too to get jammy and soft. If you’re somewhere with a bbq and with no open fire ban (Europe is sadly on high alert right now for forest fires) then go ahead and do just this. But you will also get a lovely result in an oven so let’s write a recipe for that.
Recipe
Serves 4-6 a a side salad
The dressing isn’t low in histamine - I feel like I should make that clear in case anyone like me did a little whoop.
Ingredients
4 medium beetroot, skin on
1 large red onion, cut in half from root to tip
a handful of ripe cherries, cut in half and stones removed
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
2 tsp red wine vinegar
some picked parsley leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
Fresh goats cheese (optional, you could make this without and keep it vegan)
Method
Preheat oven to 200c
Wash and dry the beetroot, rub in a little olive oil and salt, and wrap individually in foil.
Place in a baking tray alongside the onion halves also drizzled in oil, placed cut sides down. Bake on a tray for 40 minutes and then carefully unwrap the beetroot and turn the red onions over, pop back into the oven for 20 minutes. The beetroot will be cooked when a sharp knife slides in easily.
Set aside to cool, or pop in fridge overnight if you’re not making immediately.
If you have a nice char on the beetroot, you don’t have to skin them. Some of mine were really charred so I had to cut bits off with a knife so as you can see above, not perfectly round but also, you won’t notice it in the salad. Anyway, your choice to peel the skin or leave on, slice thinly and place in a large mixing bowl.
Peel the onion layers off the root into petals and add to the beetroot. Add the cherries, mix with salt and pepper, pomegranate molasses, vinegar and olive oil to taste.
Transfer to a serving bowl, add parsley and goats cheese and serve.
I actually cannot wait to make this one again, the family loved it. Each ingredient has a sweetness to it, but the beetroot brings that strong earthy taste and the onions not quite jammy, just soft and silky and mellowed out in pungency. The cherries are juicy and sweet and carry the pomegranate molasses almost undetected. If you have cherry molasses, use that! Hope you give the combo a go. Happy weekend x